Saturday, April 14, 2012

Now the right to education act has got life. The
Supreme Court underlined the need of RTE (right to education) and the
reservation of 25% of the seats for poor children without taking their other
back grounds in account. The apex court has given wings for the 2005-born act
to fly and make the class room opened for the underprivileged young buds of the
country. It is known that around eight million children between the ages 6-14
are unable to access education. There could be many reasons, but among the vague
it is clear that money plays the villain role in zillion cases. Our education
system still holds many obsolete laws and norms and at the same time the system
is getting revolutionary add-on like RTE, which is absolutely fair.

Frame work for reservations had
done brilliant jobs for the lower casts by uplifting their educational status
and many related traits. But the same frame work had transformed into a
confusing web when authority started manipulating the frame for their own needs.
The Supreme Court endorsement for the act has shown the way to nation building
on a strong and vital foundation-the education. The first act which came into
force through a speech by Prime Minister may face lot of challenges during
implementation. The same had won the court battle against a few such
challenges, but still the motion happens. The some of the hefty challenges
would be lack of teaching staffs, lack of schools under the arm of government
and also lack of infrastructure in the schools which is undertaken by
government.

As education comes under the purview
of states, it won’t be an easy task for the central to fix the nuts and bolts.
The raising of fund for the purpose is another important matter. The Hindu
reports that for implementing RTE within five years, the government needs four
lakh crore Indian rupees. That is a huge amount and let us hope the often heard
phrase “economy blooms” would help the authority to find the fund. The special
treat for all the states is that the centre government has agreed for a ratio
of 65% to 35% i.e. central would take care of 65% of the total investment. The
need of one million teachers and the facilitation to train those in-numerous
teachers also would seek a herculean task from the authority. Those things
should happen shortly for a fully polished RTE, but still the system could
provide a large sum of poor children with basic education utilizing the
government and other private schools. The ambit of law had covered all schools
except private institutions undertaken by minority. The exceptions at this
stage only help to turn the scene fishy.

Even though the Article 21A of
the Indian constitution makes our country among the list of 135 countries on
the globe for making education as one of the fundamental rights, the quality of
the education for those reserved category still sticks on a question mark. The
careful steps by the government and association with private arms would help to
improve the quality to a great extend. We all have been hearing that India is a
young county flooded with lot of talents. That may be true, but India can’t be
young all the time and time rolls. We should ensure that our kids-the future of
our land are being treated well, with all facilities and environment that
nourishes thus keeping India young and talented.